Merry Christmas to one and all!
I am writing
this to you from my office at 10 PM on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December
20. You may ask why I might be typing
at such a late hour after a long day starting at six o’clock this morning? Because when I returned from my travels to
other bases offering the Mass late this afternoon, I discovered that several
square yards of newly-poured concrete had rendered my living quarters
inaccessible. Thinking that I had somehow
missed the work notification, I diligently searched my inbox. Finding nothing, I contacted the public
works office. The sergeant there was
likewise surprised. When it comes to
working crews of Afghanis, supervision is quite loose.
FOB Fenty is
booming. While the surge ordered by the
President is directed primarily to southern Afghanistan where things are
particularly grim in and around Kandahar, we in the east have also received
some reinforcements to assist our own hard-pressed efforts. The base is full—a tent village sprung up overnight
in an attempt to house transient soldiers.
The chaplains occasionally find “homeless” soldiers and get them into a
lounge or into the chapel to sleep before they proceed on toward their units’
bases. At one base in my area there is
a new unit of the California National Guard who are teaching the locals how to
better farm their land. I call them my
“paisanos” on my monthly visits to that base, which also happens to be run by
the glorious United States Navy. I
really enjoy my visits there.
Christmas here
is surprisingly like home, minus the shopping.
Thanks to the St. Victor Parish Altar Society and some other
benefactors, the FOBs (Forward Operating Bases) in our area all have nice
Christmas trees and decorations. Some
of the B-huts have small Christmas lights and decorations set up by soldiers,
but the fine trees sent to us stand as the premier decorations of the
bases. I hope to get some photos sent
back to the States.
Different
groups use the chapels and no chapel is busier than ours at the main base, FOB
Fenty. Sunday services consist of the
Saturday evening Confessions and Mass, followed by RCIA. Sunday brings the Rosary, a morning Mass,
four Protestant services of varying styles, and a Latter-Day Saint (Mormon)
service. Hence the differences in
Christmas celebration between Christian traditions became apparent. The Protestants have spent the last three
Sundays celebrating Christmas, to the extent that December 25 itself will have
no Protestant service! Of course, the
Catholics have been celebrating Advent complete with Advent wreath (an unknown
tradition to most of the Protestants here).
How to decorate? I wanted to
decorate the week of Christmas, but the other services wanted the beginning of
December. We compromised by decorating
halfway to Christmas: December 12. The Catholics formed the working party and
in two hours we transformed our humble plywood chapel into a pretty church
ready for Christmas complete with decorated tree and wreaths and the Christmas
crèche situated under the altar with a white satin backing. Artificial poinsettias are tastefully
situated throughout the space. One
civilian contractor, who has been at this base off-and-on for the past five
years, told me that the chapel was the most beautiful thing he had seen in
Afghanistan. It is neither the
Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph nor
St. Victor Parish but we are all happy about how it turned out! Further
decoration that week converted the fifteen foot square exterior stage next to
the chapel into a holiday scene in which we placed a Christmas tree, an
electric Jewish menorah to commemorate Hanukah, and a wooden statue that
commemorates Islamic New Year. Now that
the latter two celebrations have passed, we now have an empty crib, a walking
staff representing St. Joseph, and soon will have a blue veil to represent the
Virgin Mary. During the day Christmas
music plays for passers-by. The chapel
eaves are lined with icicle Christmas lights.
I enjoy looking out my office window and seeing soldiers, contractors,
and Afghanis taking a few moments to look at the display. Speaking with a few English-speaking
Afghanis, it appears few of them even knew what a Christmas tree was. They know now!
Christmas
gift-giving is done primarily by you, the American public. The chaplains’ office is literally
waist-deep in care packages sent from the States. Most of them are sent via the large online programs like
Adopt-a-Soldier but there are numerous ones specifically sent to us chaplains
as well. My officemates have commented
on the high quality care packages sent by my family, friends, and
parishioners. For example, the care
package from my seminary brother Manny from Hawaii arrived today with Macadamia
nuts, Kona coffee, and other delicacies.
A couple days before there were excellent care packages from the Fryes
and Triggs of St. Victor Parish. The
chaplain assistants are beginning to think that Berryessa is like Beverly
Hills! It goes on and on… my heretofore
significant weight loss has reversed once December rolled around. The chaplains push boxes to the COPs (Combat
Out Posts) but the care packages keep arriving. Mail is extremely heavy:
in the multiple tons per day for our brigade alone. Some days the mail here is over five pounds
per soldier in the brigade, and there are 4,000 of us!
Of special note
are the many boxes of toys that SV parishioners have gathered for one of our
Forward Surgical Teams (FST). A FST is
a small Operating/Emergency Room stationed at a FOB for the purpose of reducing
the time elapsed from a soldier getting wounded to his proper medical
treatment. The goal is to treat
soldiers within the “Golden Hour,” the first sixty minutes after becoming
injured. This duty is important enough,
but since hospitals are few and far between in Afghanistan the FSTs also serve
as medical clinics treating broken bones and more serious injuries among the
Afghani population. Children in
particular seem to be disproportionally injured. One irritating custom of theirs is chasing cars. I mean that in the same sense that dogs
chase cars: who knows why, but they
do. Naturally children are getting run
over or struck by vehicles since defensive driving and avoiding pedestrians are
unknown concepts to Afghani drivers.
A sincere thanks
to those who contributed to the Afghan toy drive.
Christmas Day
Masses throughout this area began on December 17 and will continue until just
before New Year’s Day. I figure that if
I can’t get to a base by the time 2010 rolls around, it’s too late to celebrate
Christmas anyways and we’ll make do with celebrating Epiphany, which is “close
enough for government work.” The
Jalalabad FOBs (there are three of them) do celebrate the standard Catholic
liturgical calendar, so I was celebrating the Fourth Sunday of Advent today
during my travels.
Besides the
holiday celebration, the sailors had fun plastering Navy and Naval Academy
paraphernalia around the base and celebrated Navy’s victory in the Army-Navy
football game on December 12. It
started at midnight our time on Sunday the 13th but I couldn’t
really tell my soldiers at morning Mass why I was so drowsy for fear of being
shot, so I drank a lot of coffee.
One special
“care package” for me was some great video clips St. Victor School sent me. Of these, I commend to you the third
graders’ rendition of “How Beautiful” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c309e-JFEvs
May all of you
have a most blessed Christmas celebration and may 2010 be a better year for our
country, our Church, and our world!
Yours in
Christ, Fr. Michael